Tests, What Are They Good For?
Absolutely Nothing!
Are the students taking the tests for themselves? No, they are not taking them for the teachers either. They are taking them for the school principals, the administrators at Beaudry headquarters, and for the state bureaucrats.
Do the tests benefit the students? Absolutely not! There are many other ways to reflect a student’s progress. Do the tests benefit the teachers? Absolutely not! Teachers are required to teach 100% of the curriculum in about 80% of the school year in order to cover the skills to be tested. The pressure upon the teachers today is extraordinary and much greater than it was in the past.
Who are the people that write the tests? Who are the people that mandate the length of each test and the number of questions? They can’t be current or recent classroom teachers. Classroom teachers are never consulted on curriculum, testing, or anything that is mandated for the classroom. Teachers are on the front line with the students and they would never have the students do what the bureaucrats have them do. Test scores have become the only thing important in education today!
Comparisons are everywhere: between schools in similar socioeconomic areas, grade levels at the same school, school districts, states, and teachers. At one time the State of California would award money to every employee on a school campus if the test scores rose sufficiently. How abominable! LAUSD once tried to attach raises to improved test scores. What about P. E., Art, Music, and computer teachers?
Parents, and future parents must stand up and demand the necessary changes to return education to it rightful place of educating students for the next grade and for their future and not for testing.
Any questions: just ask anyone who has seen “The Race to Nowhere.”
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